Concert @ Esplanade

Had a nice evening out with the class at the Esplanade. It was a nice end to an otherwise sucky day. We left school punctually at 5.30pm. I think I'm very glad that the class was so cooperative. We had to leave punctually coz we wanted to have enough time for dinner, and everyone played their part in being on time. Nice start!

We arrived at Esplanade at about 6pm and went over to the Marina Food Court for dinner. Had a lovely dish of charsiew/roast pork rice... the charsiew was succulent and the roast pork had very crispy skin. YUMMY. I predict I will return this weekend for a seond helping. Dinner was fun. Plenty of talk about taugays. Well, here's a pic especially for Nini. Hope you enjoy it.



After the charsiew, roast pork and pizza, most of us were quite filled. But there was still dessert! So Yiyi bought a bowl of ice kachang and over 10 people were digging into it!!



After dinner, we had a leisurely walk to the Esplanade. I was hoping for a good concert. It's been a long time since I've gone for a real concert. Took a class pic at the concourse in the Esplanade.



As we took our seats in the concert hall, I was again awed by the hall. Managed to sneak a photo. Sorry.. dun report me... but the hall is really very impressive and as far as I'm concerned, I think the acoustics are very good.



The Royal Copenhagen Chapel Choir was pretty good. They sounded very nice. However, the reportoire for the night was really pretty heavy, consisting of only classical pieces and none in english. So it was a little hard to follow everything. But I must say that the story teller was fantastic. As I listened to her, I understood how some people can be professional story tellers. She was animated, but not in an 'in-your-face' kind of way and she really captured my attention. Throughout the concert, it was fun trying to see who were the 'sleeping beauties'. One student slept and started to snore... quite audibly.. heh. Ok, I'll confess, I did almost nod-off at one point in the concert, but I managed to keep awake. :-P

After the concert, we walked past the concourse again. Snapped a pic of the lanterns that they had hung there. They were supposed to be lanterns made by primary school students. It was a very nice sight.



On the bus on the way back to school, the boys were hilarious. So much energy! Kept singing Haagen Dazs songs. Heh. Sorry guys, don't think you were powerful enough! Try harder next time.

Yeah, so that's how the night went. For the 1Q guys, you can find the pics I took here.

Weird Daez.

These past few days have really been disconcertingly calm. It's a freaky feeling that it's a calm just before a mega-storm. In some ways, the rain started falling last night, and there was some kind of storm today. I wonder if the worst is over for now.

I've had to deal with different things this week. Many of them involved dealing with different people. Perhaps because of that, I was kinda emotionally drained. It's not easy trying to engage people. And interestingly, I find that many people were also emotionally off-balance this week. Dunno leh, maybe it's some alignment of the planets... or some distortion in the earth's electromagnetic field... or subliminal programming over tv... or wateva. I find many people getting agitated by different people all around. Weird. Maybe it's just the 'coming-to-the-end-of-term' stress. For me, these last two days have also been frustrating as my back was giving me a really hard time. Dunno why it acted up but it was really hurting and I couldn't stand for long periods of time. Usually the pain eased up as the day went by, but it wasn't the case for these two days. That probably added some fuel to the bomb...

Anywaez, today was bad. The morning started really badly. Some teachers tried to give me a surprise, but the surprise really backfired. I flipped out and gave it to them. Throughout the day, I've been trying to decide why I reacted like that. I think it was a culmination of things. But I think they were shocked that I was so pissed. Maybe that also teaches me to be careful when trying to play a 'sabo' on someone. The best of intentions can easily be misconstrued by others.

Well, the rest of the day was spent brooding over my outburst.

In the evening, things got better. Went with my class to the Royal Copenhagen choir. I'll blog that separately. So that's it for this entry.

Spend, spend, spend

Today was a crazy day of spending. It was quite incredible. I hadn't planned it, it kinda just happened. Maybe it was really retail therapy after a really stressful week. Having payday just 2 days ago probably contributed to it. So let's see what the damage adds up to:

Ordered my new Home Theatre system. Finally decided to go with the Mardaunt-short genie. Had to pay a deposit, so upfront, paid up $640

Then I went to Funan to see if Burnout Legends for the PSP was out. It was my lucky day! The stock just arrived in the morning. So, I spent $84 on it (after a $5 discount). As I walked off, I asked if Winning Eleven for the PSP was released. They told me it was. Although not a huge soccer fan, I know the WE series is pretty good, and I Wouldn't mind trying it on the PSP, so.. what the heck.. I bought it. Cost me $70.

After some lunch, decided to drop by Gramaphone opposite City Hall MRT. Was kinda hoping that Advent Children would be available. Well, it wasn't (sadly but thankfully), but instead, I saw the original Battlestar Galactica series for sale at $89 (thankfully but sadly). Quite a steal considering that the usual collectors' edition costs about twice of that! So, buy lor.

I knew Kinokuniya was having a 20% sale, so I decided to take a look to see if any new trade paperbacks were out. On my way there, went past bras basah complex. Saw the watch shop where I usually get my Casio G-shock watches... was reminded that I had recently (as in yesterday) lost my daily-wear digital G-shock, so I decided to get a new one... Chose what I considered cheaper but decent one (solar-charged!). There flew $98.

Well, the day was not over. Went to Kinokuniya at Bugis, didn't see anything much but as usual, with a 20% sale, it's a little too good to let go. Happens once every few months only. So, got myself a Conan trade paperback (by Kirt Busiek, who is generally quite good) and an Empire magazine. Saved about $5 from the discount, but spent about $26. heh. After that, I went down to Bugis basement foodcourt for some tea-time snack and to rest & play by new Burnout on PSP. Found that they had a new Roti Prata shop at the food court! Not too bad lar, cost $3.00 for a Cheese and sausage prata and $1.30 for a teh tarik. Wasn't fantastic, but a decent afternoon tea.

After my snack, it was already about 4 pm so I decided to go home. On my way up the escalator, remembered I wanted to look for a wallet to keep all the discount cards, membership cards, etc. My current wallet was exploding with all the cards. So, went upstairs, browsed a little, a purhased a card wallet and some socks & stuff. Spent about $43. After that, decided I had really better go home before I spent any more money.

So total damage.... $1050!!!

Please don't think I do this all the time... ashamed.... but I must admit.. feels good! :-P

Complicating

Just thinking, aren't human beings complicated?

Had three experiences today, all highlighting how we can be so complicating. Yeah, it's 'we' coz I think I'm most certainly personally included in one of the experiences.

I really ought to rethink how I react to things. I should make things less complicated instead of adding to it.

Not that I can succeed in doing it lar. But better to have hoped and tried then to have never attempted at all, right?

Life is so unfair!

Wow, as expected, this week is really challenging. As usual, plenty of stuff due, plenty of new stuff to do and plenty of stuff to prevent you from doing anything else. heh.

So, why is life unfair?

Sigh, three exciting new things are happening but I can't indulge in any of them. This is really frustrating. Firstly, the release of the Gameboy Micro. It was released on Monday, but there's no way I could make my way down to see it. I guess I won't get it yet (heard that the transformer is not available yet). I'm quite keen to wait a couple of days more and hopefully get my hands on a US version. Actually, I'm quite regretting buying a japanese PSP instead of a US one. Now I want to buy the US movies, but can't coz the region coding is wrong.

Second exciting thing? Burnout Revenge was released yesterday. I bought it when I went for dinner at Thomson Plaza. I managed to play a little yesterday and it was really good. But sigh... there's no way I can spend anymore time on it. There are just too many things happening. And there's no way I can in any good conscience spend time playing it. So now, I can only look at the game casing and imagine myself playing the game. Yeah... i know.... i sound pathetic.

Third? Well, kinda related to second thing. I think Burnout Legends for the PSP is also out. And according to reviews, it's just as good as Burnout Revenge for the xbox. I am so dying to go and get it from Funan. But no way lor. Thursday is impossible.... Friday is lagi more impossible.. .which leaves Saturday. So, my only glimmer of hope? Rush down after PTM and hope there's still stock!

Yeah, I know, I sound shallow. Maybe I ought to have more meaningful pursuits... heh... yah.. sure...

To buy or not to buy...

Sent a mail to a video game shop and found out that the expected price for the Gameboy Micro in Singapore is S$215! Wow... that's quite expensive considering that it's supposed to cost US$99 which works out to about S$170. The Japanese price is 12000Yen which works out to be about S$183.

How? To buy or not to buy? Tough decision!

Home Theatre Shopping Part 3

I went for my weekly Sim Lim visit today and decided to see if I could see any speaker deals. Not too bad, managed to visit 3 shops. At the first shop, I saw the KEF KHT2005.2 again. So I thought I might as well see if the demo would be better. However, they were busy with another demo so I decided to come back a little later.

Went to another shop in level 2. They had quite a nice range so I asked the salesguy to recommend something. He looked kinda bewildered then brought me into a demo room. They had the Mordaunt-SHort Genie there but with a different amp. So I asked if I could listen to it. He then fumbled around with the amp but in the end, there was no demo! It was kinda weird. I wasn't sure if he was gonna let me listen to it or not. Anyway, although he had other speakers, like harmon kardon, onkyo, etc, etc, I didn't get to hear anything. I think he wasn't really sure what to do. But the good thing I got from this shop was that the M-S Genie was actually cheaper than wat the Adelphi shop was offering me... almost $250 cheaper! I mean, with this $250, I can buy a better amp lor. Now I dunno how.. to go with less-pro shop but cheaper, or go with more-pro shop but more expensive. sigh.

So I went back downstairs to listen to the KEF speakers. I must say that this time, the demo was much more impressive. Much better than the shop at Adelphi. Maybe it was the demo clip, maybe it was the amp they used. I dunno lar, but basically, the KEF sounded good. The salesguy then recommended I try the Mirage Omnisat Micro. They looked really cool, as you can see from the pic below. And they are omni-directional speakers. The speakers were quite good too, but I think they weren't better than the Jamo or the M-S Genie.

Mirage Omnisat Micro

The last shop I visited was selling a package with Energy speakers and a Marantz amp. The shop was ok, the salesguy took the time to work out an estimate cost for me and also showed me quite a long demo. The speakers were ok. At first, the volume was a bit low so I was a bit disappointed. Later I asked him to up the volume and the sound finally kicked in. On the whole, also pretty good speakers.

Energy Act6

Well, I think I've pretty much made up my mind. As in, I'll probably go back to Adelphi. I guess I'll go to the more-pro shop. I'm already spending over $3k on this, no point being stingy on a $250 and end up having a lousy job. I think the more-pro shop is also including the cables in the price. I'll probably drop in again, maybe tomorrow, to take a look. Well, I think this Part 3 probably ends my Home Theatre Shopping Chronicles. Now on to purchasing and installing!

New Temptations

Wow, Sony and Apple has released their new MP3 players. And both are them look really good. Sony has released their new Network Walkman, NW A-1000. I love the OLED screen which is flush under the surface of the player. The colours available are also pretty cool. Dimensions: 65.2 x 104.2 x 21.4 mm and weighs about 182 g.

At the same time, Apple launched their iPod Nano. While I am generally an iPod hater, I must admit the iPod Nano looks fantastic. How they managed to squeeze everything into such a thin, slim form is just inconceivable. Dimension: 89 x 40 x 7 mm and weighs about 42 g!!!

It's a good thing that I'm not really into listening to music everywhere I go. These two items are beautiful enough to make me want to buy both immediately! Like I mentioned in an earlier post, my next purchase will probably be the Gameboy Micro. That will be release on Sep 13 in Japan.


Sony NW A-1000

iPod Nano

Home Theatre Shopping Part 2

On Thursday, I finally found time to continue with Part 2 of my home theatre shopping. After some stuff which I had to do in school, I made my way to Adelphi again and spent about 2 to 3 hours there.

My verdict? I think it all boils down to service. I experienced such varying standards of service in my 3 hours there. I started off with this shop selling Klipsch speakers. As I walked into the shop, the two salesmen in the shop didn;t really acknowledge my presence. It was kinda irritating. It was almost as if I was interrupting their conversation. Well, I walked one round then I approached one of the salesman to ask for recommendations for a HTS (home theatre system). He said I could consider the Klipsch and Onkyo speakers so I asked for a demo. He sat me down, put in a demo disc and let me listen to the Klipsch. Ok, it was quite nice, though not mind-blowingly wonderful. So after listening to the Klipsch, I asked if I could listen to another different set of speakers. The salesman then had the audacity to say, 'If you like the sound from this one, no need to listen to others.' I was really shocked lor. I mean, what kind of business is this? I then asked some meaningless questions and left the shop, thoroughly disgusted by the service.


Klipsch Cinema 6 Speakers

My next visit was to this shop selling Jamo speakers. Wow, the service was totally different. When I walked into the shop, the lone salesguy immediately asked me how he could be of assistance. When I told him that I was looking for a HTS and gave him my budget, he politely ushered me into the demo room and proceeded to let me listen to the E700PDD speakers. The speakers were really quite good! I loved the rumbling and it was really quite a moving experience. The effects were crisp and clear, though I thought the speech could have been a little better. Anyway, after the first few minutes of listening to the demo, the salesguy started explaining the speakers to me, telling me about their construction, the features, etc, etc. When I left the shop, I was seriously considering the Jamo speakers. Such is the power of excellent service.


Jamo E700PDD Speakers

My friend had recommended that I try out the KEF speakers. At first, as I looked into the shop window, I kinda wondered if I could afford them. The shop looked a little too upmarket. Anyway, I finally went in and again, the salesguy was quite friendly. He sat me down and let me listen to the demo. For the KEF, I found the demo quite limp. He showed me a dogfight scene from X-men 2. Frankly, I found it noisy and the sound was thin with not much of a kick or oomph. After the demo, the saleguy explained some things like which amp I could consider. On the whole, a nice friendly guy, but I think it was a wrong choice of demo and the speakers maybe weren't really optimized. The KEF were supposed to be very good... but I couldn't get that from the demo.


KEF Speakers

The final stop I made was at this shop displaying the YAMAHA brand name. I thought I might as well give it a try coz at this point, I was getting kinda tired and was thinking of going home already. Well, the salesman was also friendly, but I think he didn't know what he was really doing, other than switching on the amp and letting me listen to the speakers. To add to that, the HECO speakers (sound a bit cheapo, but I found out later that they are actually some German brand) were in a sad state. THey looked old. THe subwoofer had a ugly scratched surface and looked lousy. Although I must say the sound was decent, the lack of professionalism, the poor setup, really turned me off.


Heco Speakers

So, after two trips to Adelphi, what have I decided? I'm actually considering either the Jamo E700PDD speakers or the Mordaunt-Short Genie speakers. I realized that one main reason was that both shops had taken the time to explain things to me and their demo setups were really good. THe other shops either had poor service or poor technical demos. Quite a waste. I'll probably think on it for a couple more days before making a final decision.

Ahh... here's the new toy I am looking forward to. It's the new Gameboy Micro. It basically takes the Gameboy Advance cartridges but it's ultra small. The dimensions are 10cm by 5cm by 1.7cm... that's like the size of a standard handphone lor! And the screen, though small, is supposed to be so sharp and clear that it's the best screen on a gameboy ever! The Gameboy Micro is due for release on Sep 13 and will cost about US$99. Heh.. Can't wait.

Today I went to Adelphi to start doing some serious shopping for my new Home Theatre System. I only managed to visit one shop but I can already see that I'm gonna have a pretty hard time deciding over the next couple of weeks. The first pic below is that of the B&W MT20, the first system I heard today. It was really quite nice. The sound was crisp and the the surround was fantastic. The speakers themselves looked really cool. But the speakers alone cost almost $2600. I asked to hear something less expensive and was shown the Mordaunt-Short Genie speakers (the second pic). When I heard them, I thought I really liked the sound. It was less crisp and had a nice full sound to it. Maybe the earlier speakers had a higher treble setting. Anyway, I'm not exactly a expert at hearing stuff, so I can pretty much only go for what I feel lor. The Genie speakers cost $1700, a whopping $900 cheaper than the B&W.

Actually, a couple of days ago, I went to the shop where I had bought my projector. They had offered me a neat package but the speakers and amplifier were like not very branded lor. I'm sorry, but after some consideration, I think I'm quite a brand-junkie. I don't think I'm gonna be happy if I save a few hundred bucks and got a 'brand-less' system... sigh... I know, I sound a little shallow.

Well, I hope to go visit a few other shops in Adelphi. My friends have recommended I listen to some Klipsch or KEF speakers. Quite fun to go shopping for a Home Theatre system, but it's sure gonna hurt my wallet...

Superstar Discussions

Thanks to everyone who took the time to post your tag concerning Kelvin Tan Wei Lian's victory over Kelly Poon.

Frankly, I know there'll be no end to the discussions. It's all a matter of opinions and everyone is entitled to his won. It's like the eternal argument of which is the best: the PS2, Xbox or Nintendo Gamecube?

So, my take on it is simply this.

Did Wei Lian win coz of sympathy votes? Maybe. We'll never know why people voted for him. Did he being blind play a part? Yes I think so too. Does he have a good voice? While it is arguable if he has the BEST voice, I think most would agree that he does have a good voice. So did he deserve to win Superstar? To me, yes (heh, coz I'm a Kelvin supporter lar!). Ultimately, he managed to garner over 340 000 votes. As reported by Mediacorp, Wei Lian consistently has got more voters who voted fewer times whereas Kelly had fewer voters who tend to vote many more times each. Hence, Wei Lian does have more fan support than Kelly. And I think that while his voice is able to move many of us, the more important fact is that he also does serve as an inspiration to many. Maybe that's unfair. But hey, if kelly can make use of her 'mobility' and beauty (both physical characteristics) to sway voters to her side, why is it unfair that people can be swayed coz of Kelvin's physical characteristic of being blind?

OK lar, like I said, I think there will be no end to this discussion. This is my two cents worth lor. For those who disagree, sorry lor. Feel free to take it up in the Superstar Forum in Channel U website.

Term 3 Week 10

Wow. 3/4 of the school year is over.

This term, has been a real ride.

The phrase that comes to mind is 'Fast & Furious'.

That's how the events & activities came. One after the other, unrelentingly. From Youth Week, to the Ultramarathon to National Day to Elections to Teachers Day... wow, that works out to one major event every two weeks. And we've not included the little minor events that occur throughout the term.

For those who are thinking of becoming prefects, not to scare you, but the prefects were involved in every single one of those in a major way. I can't imagine how that would have affected their school work. I know it's never said enough, but in hindsight, I must again say that I really appreciate the efforts put in by the prefects to serve the school.

Well, at the end of this Fast & Furious term, things are just taking a slight slowdown. I'm glad for the week break. It's not gonna be a holiday. More like a chance to catch our breath. Already, I've got stuff to do everyday in school. But I guess at least there's no need to go school at 7.20am everyday. Shiok.

Oh yah, I'm very glad for Wei Lian. He WON!!! I know Kelly did better than him in the finals lar... but I still stick by the fact that Wei Lian has more vocal talent than her. So, I'm really glad substance won over style. Can't wait for his CD to be released!

Anatomically Correct Statues

I love going to Kinokuniya. It's probably the best bookshop in Singapore right now. Together with the fantastic 20% sales or even normal 10% discount for members, I think they offer one of the best deals in books and magazines.

But that's not the topic of this post.

Today, after browsing at Kino, I decided to walk over to HMV at The Heeren. So, I took the lift down to the 1st floor and then decided to cut across the main atrium in front of Ngee Ann City. It's not my first time walking across it, but I guess I never really paid attention until today.

Well, I saw the two lion statues and thought, hmm.. nice... then as I walked past the first one, I kinda noticed something sticking out between it's legs. I thought, hmm... probably some lights to light up the lion in the evening. But then, when I walked over to the second statue on the left of the door, I realized the 'thing' was missing. That's when I realized, the two statues were actually anatomically correct! Hmm... it's kinda disturbing.

I must apologise to those of you who might be offended by this post. It's not my intention to post statue porn. But I was really quite surprised and thought it was interesting enough to share here. (Click on pics to see larger pics)

Lion on the right of the door (male lion)
Lion on the left of the door (female lion)

New Pics

Just uploaded new pics from today's pre-Teachers Day event! Take a look by clicking on the link on the right.

We had the launch of the Golden Man Awards for Teachers Day today. I am super-impressed at Weijie and Wenhao for being so sporting in being the Golden Men for the morning flag-raising, recess & lunch. Great job guys!

Sad day

I am sad.

I went supermarketing today. Thought I would give myself a treat so I bought a nice big bottle of ribena to bring to school so that I can have yummy blackcurrant goodness for my tea break.

Well, I got home and decided that the yummy blackcurrant goodness could not wait. So I opened the bottle and made myself a nice cold cup of refreshing ribena. I placed the bottle in front of the microwave oven.

I'm sure you can guess what happened next.

Later at night, I decided to cook some rice for dinner. I took my microwave rice cooker, put in some rice, washed it, drained it, put in some water then sealed the rice cooker. Then I put the rice cooker into the microwave oven. Forgetting that my bottle of ribena was in front of it.

Sigh.

It was a pretty sight. Thick gooey purple liquid all over the floor. The splatter pattern reminded me of many CSI episodes. Glass shards everywhere.

Well, had to spend the next 30 to 45 mins clearing up the mess. That was exciting. very.

Sigh.

I am sad. No more ribena.

Wow, can't believe I've not updated for a week. This week has been pretty crazy. The thing that's taking up a huge chunk of time is the Teachers Day celebrations. Heh, stupid me thought that I might be able to sit this one out and kinda just slack, but things have a funny way of turning out exactly OPPOSITE of the way you hope it would be.

Been in school until 10plus for the last two nights. So every night when I reach home, all i wanna do is just vegetate. Tonight, left school only around 11.15pm. Saturday's not gonna be much better. I'm guessing somewhere around 10.30pm. It's fun lah... but it's really tiring.

A few exciting things happened this week. Unfortunately, they're kinda unbloggable things. Sorry!

Oh ya, I bought Wei Lian's single last week. I think it is very very good lor. Heard Kelly's single coz a fellow teacher prefers her... (so poor taste lor!). I really think Kelly is not very strong. Next Thursday is gonna be interesting. Will the audience go for sound? Or will they prefer a pretty face? Quite exciting lor!

Wow... end of term is coming pretty fast. If you think about it, it's like 6 or 7 more weeks to the really nice long vacation. Woohoo!!!

Maybe something more exciting will happen tomorrow. I shall endeavour to post some pics soon. Been a while since I put a cool pic. Sigh...

Wow....He actually won!

I can't believe it. It was almost impossible for him to do it, but he actually did! Weilian actually beat Junyang to get into the grand finals! It's really quite unbelievable. I'm sure Junyang must be devastated but congrats to Weilian for being able to make it all the way!

As for the females, I was kinda rooting for Xinhui cause I think she sings better. But the honest truth is that her fashion sense sucks. So Kelly gets into the finals. Not my first choice, but I'm quite ok with that lar.

So now we have Weilian vs Kelly. It's gonna be a very interesting grand finals. Weilian is really not your typical superstar. But he has a voice which is just plain magical (when he uses it properly lar!). Kelly is more your typical star... good looking, nice image, decent voice. Can't wait for September 1st! Talk about an exciting Teachers day!

A little bit of excitement

A little bit of excitement today. Received an sms around 10am from a friend telling me that this blog was mentioned in Today. My immediate thots... DIE LAR! I'd just given a talk on blogs on Tuesday and suddenly on Wednesday, my blog was quoted in the newspaper. Found the article and was quite amused that the writer had said that I was a Rafflesian 'student'.. A friend of mine said that I ought to write in and demand a correction. Heh.. like I would want it published lor! Imagine the correction: We apologise to Zeke for the error. It should have been a Rafflesian 'TEACHER' and not student... I think it's worse lor! Well, there goes my 10 seconds of fame.

Today was really quite busy. It's like one thing after the other. On top of preparing for 3 different elections, had to prepare lessons, attend meetings and do rehearsal for Boarding's 10th anniversary dinner. On top of that, still HAD to watch 绝对Superstar (definitely non-negotiable!). Phew. Now it's already 12.25am and I've just gotten started on doing some stuff. I think I'm getting too old for this. Looks like things will go at breakneck speed until the end of the year. Talk about a marathon.

Tonight's 绝对Superstar was a bit of a letdown. Both Weilian and Junyang were sick and couldn't sing/perform at their peak. It's really one of those things lor.. fight all the way to the finals then fall sick! I think the judges were a little unfair towards Weilian. I personally thought his last song was better than Junyang's. Nevermind... keep fingers crossed. Maybe, just maybe, Weilian might actually enter the grand finals!

very tired.

only abt 10 weeks to go before the end of the year. But already quite burnt out.

Last two nights didn't help coz had to stay up late to do stuff. Maybe a good nite's rest will make things better.

Stupid aching back doesn't help. Maybe ought to go see some physiotherapist.

"In the arms of an Angel fly away from here
From this dark, cold hotel room, and the endlessness that you fear
You are pulled from the wreckage of your silent reverie
You're in the arms of an Angel; may you find some comfort here"

Angel by Sarah McLachlan

I think I'm an American Idol junkie. Three of my favourite songs (in order) are:

1. I Believe (by Fantasia Barrino, American Idol 2004)
2. Angels brought me here (by Guy Sebastian, Australian Idol 2003)
3. Inside Your Heaven (by Carrie Underwood, American Idol 2005)

I love blasting 'I Believe' through my Altec Lansing MX5021 speakers. Sometimes, I just need that kind of assurance and motivation. Like the words say,

"I believe in the impossible
If I reach deep within my heart
Overcome any obstacle
Won't let this dream fall apart
See I strive to be the very best
Shine my light for all to see
Cause anything is possible
When you believe yeah"

The other song which I've been listening to extensively again is 'Angel' by Sarah McLachlan.

Think I'm obviously going through some down time...

Ho Hum...

The last couple of days have been fairly non-eventful. There was English Feste on Thursday and Friday so there pretty much weren't any lessons for the whole of last week. Maybe it's the normal case of the idle mind being the devil's workshop. When things are in a wind-down mode, the mind usually starts using its resources to think of stuff you would otherwise not think about.

Not that there aren't things to do. Coming up are the Head Prefect selections, Teachers Day celebrations, Boarding School 10th Anniversary celebrations, RIPB elections, etc, etc. So there is plenty to do.

Anywaez, what have I been thinking about? Hmm.. I guess the main thing is where I am heading in the next couple of years. I've almost completed 5 years in RI. To me, that's quite a lot of years. I'm obviously not getting any younger, so are there things which I want to try and do which I have still not done? Live life without regrets. I believe in that. I think it's important to be true to ourselves and pursue the dreams we have. Do I stay in RI? Do I seek other challenges? Hmmm... plenty of questions, no answers.

Other meaningless random thoughts in my mind:

Presidential Elections. Just heard over the news, no elections coz no one else is getting a certificate of eligibility. Heh.. I just find it so funny. We're probably the only country with the longest serving non-elected elected president. heh. I was reading a blog where the writer was ranting about how silly it is that in our supposedly educated and clean/corrupt-free Singapore, we cannot even find two people to stand for elections for our presidency. That's quite true isn;t it? It's like saying, in our country of over 3 million people, we only have ONE person who is willing and eligible to be president.

Protest outside CPF building. The other big news all over the blogging community. Apparently, 4 people were having some kind of silent protest outside the CPF building. They were asking for more transparency over how the govenrment uses our CPF and other sources of funds. Well, the police sent 40 'riot-police' to disperse and stop the 4 people from protesting. I'm not sure, but I don't think there was any report about this in the newspapers. Maybe it's just not newsworthy enough. I'm not gonnabe political about this. The only comment I want to make is, 40 people to stop 4 people? Sigh... talk about overkill.

Just what is newsworthy? One of the recent hot news is about that fella who swam across the English channel in about 12 hours. Plenty of newspaper and TV coverage. From what I gather, many people have done this but he's the first Singaporean to do it. They even showed him on TV as he climbed out of the water and waved his school flag in triumph. Ok lar, I guess it is quite an achievement. Flashback to 2 weeks ago. We had Dr Tan, going 24 hours around a track to break a Guiness World Record, with over 1800 students supporting him through the 24 hours, with 2 ministers dropping by to support & encourage him and there wasn't even a mention over TV. In the newspapers, there were brief mentions which were hardly near the coverage the english channel fella had. Hmm... so what is newsworthy?

Stargate SG-1. I'm kinda hooked on this old sci-fi series. When the Stargate movie first came out, it wasn't very well-received. It was kinda slow and not very exciting. But I personally enjoyed it and thought the premise was very interesting. Well, the movie actually spawned a TV series which also wasn't very popular. But in the end, it actually lasted 9 seasons! That's pretty good for a show that wasn't very popular. Anywaez, I bought the DVDs of Seasons 1 & 2 last year when I was in the US (cheap, 2nd hand!) and I finally got around to watching them recently. Must say they're quite good! Not on par with Star Trek, Buffy or Battlestar Galactica, but still highly watchable and reasonably interesting.

绝对SUPERSTAR!

Yay!!! The four best singers got into the finals! Wei Lian and Junyang for the guys and Xinhui and Kelly for the gals! Dunno how many of you follow the show, but I think the 4 of them are really good! Lucky the other two didn't get in.

Saw all the girls crying for derrick on tv... heh.. my friend said they were crying coz they dunno how to pay for all the SMS voting bills... :-P

Pretty Sucky National Day....

yeah.. I've been quite quiet over the national day break. Actually, I was kinda looking forward to it, but things just didn't seem to go my way.

On Monday, we had the celebrations in school. That didn't end too good, so it was kinda like a bad omen to the start of the 3-day break. In the morning, I also received some bad news. Originally, I was supposed to get a ticket to go for the NDP. I was kinda looking forward to it coz I'd never been to a NDP at the Padang. The last one I went was at the National Stadium quite a few years ago. So anywaez, I spent Sunday afternoon looking for a red shirt for the NDP and spent $20 to get one in the end. On Monday, just after the school's celebrations, I received news that I won;t be getting the ticket. THat was quite disappointing. So, 2nd bad omen in less than 2 hours. Sigh.

On Monday afternoon, I accompanied some of the prefects and the M'sian visitors to the Istana. Quite ok lar. I wasn't overly excited coz it wasn't my first time meeting the president. I had participated in some chit chat session with the president some time last year. And dunno leh.. I've kinda reached the 'he's-just-one-of-us' kinda state. So it wasn't terribly exciting.

So how did I spend the National day break? Sigh. I was so looking forward to catching up on the movies which I'd missed while I was on MC. But the fates decided otherwise. My body decided to have mini-gout attack party. The pain started first at my right knee, then it got better, then it spread to my right foot, then it got better, then it spread to my left foot, then it got better... by then.. it was already Wednesday afternoon. So how did I spend my National Day break? On my chair, ice-ing my mini-gout attacks... and hoping it won't get worse. Sigh.. exciting eh?

Two things that I can talk about. Firstly, the National Day Parade. I thought this year's celebrations were quite boring. Actually, every year seems to be a repeat of itself again and again. I think the organizers need to find some way to make it fresh. I hated the idea of 'mini-celebrations' throughout Singapore. Thought it was kinda silly. The fireworks were nice. There were some interesting ones this year. Saw this circular one with a star in the middle. Very cool. I think next year maybe should just pay a couple of hundred bucks to get a room at the Swissotel and see everything from the comfort of a hotel room!

Secondly, I hobbled to GV Great World to catch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Not a bad show. Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are an excellent pair. The oompa loompas were not too irritating and their dance numbers were decently fun. I had hoped to catch Seven Swords on the same day but decided not to aggravate my mini-gout attack, so went home to rest.

So there it is... my exciting National Day break. Hooray. Sigh.

A sad day in History... I wonder how many Singaporeans know it.

Got up this morning, watched some cartoons, surfed some internet, then popped by to Orchard to go for the Kinokuniya sale before walking down Orchard to see the students busking & raising funds for MINDS. Got home, took out the stuff I bought at Kino, switched on the TV and kicked back to relax on this Saturday afternoon. Surfed around the TV channels before stopping at CNA as I noticed something about Atomic bombs being reported (must be the physics teacher in me). It was then that I realised that today was the 60th anniversary of the release of the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima.

As I watched the report about the memorial ceremonies going on in Hiroshima, I wondered how many people in Singapore actually realized that today was the day when more than 140,000 people in Hiroshima perished at 8.15am. I, for one, had forgotten. I mean, to be frank, I don't really think about it every year. But as global citizens, I think such a date would be quite signifiant wouldn't it? I mean, in a flash, the temperature in Hiroshima city went up as high as 4000 degrees celsius. I don't think we can comprehend how hot that really is. We are already complaining like mad when temperatures in Singapore hit 30 degrees.

Quite a few years ago(I'm thinking around 8 to 10 years?), when I made my first visit to Japan, I made it a point to start my journey at Hiroshima because I wanted to see how the city had survived the A-bomb. It was quite an experience, being at the A-bomb memorial park. There was an air of solemnity and calmness in the park. I visited the A-bomb museum where I saw the horrors of the A-bomb detonation and how there were people who are still suffering from it today. It was a visit I never regretted. I strongly encourage those of you who are even remotely interested in Japan to make a trip to Hiroshima. You will not regret it.

As I watched the news report over CNA, I think that maybe we ought to make it a point to remember dates like this. I think the dropping of the A-bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki are definitive moments in history. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in a flash. World War II ended. A whole nation was changed. The whole world was affected. It does make my cartoons, shopping, strolling seem just a little insignificant today eh?

For those who would like to take a look at the Peace Park and Memorial Museum, here's the link.

Here's the new Zen Vision from Creative. It's looking pretty good, able to be play a wide range of files from WMV to DivX, and of course, able to function as MP3 player and picture viewer. The estimated price currently is US$400. It's not announced in Singapore yet, but I suspect they'll launch it at the September PC show. I must say it's looking mighty tempting!

Things have been better today. For one thing, I think my temp basically stayed between 38 to 39 degrees.. But when I first woke up this morning, I was on the verge of a shiver attack. I dunno if any of you have felt it before, but it's this horrible feeling that with every breath, you just feel like shivering uncontrollably. Well, like I said, things got better, I started sweating it out which for me is always a good sign.

It's been a frustrating day. For the whole day, I had a fever which ranged from 38 degrees to 40.2 degrees. At times, it felt as if my brain was being fried! I really hope this eases up tomorrow. I dun think a persistently high temperature is good for my system. As I type this, my temp is 38.6 degrees, which is pretty low compared to the 40 over degrees which I've had to endure today.

Awake & sober

Woke up this morning after an uneasy night of rest. I guess it's hard to sleep knowing that I'm due for a surgical procedure. Got up at 6.30am and made my way to Tan Tock Seng Hostpital. My appointment was at 7.30am.

It's interesting... the things that went through my mind as I made my way to TTSH. Of course, the thought that something could go wrong is probably the strongest. How did I overcome that? Appeal to higher powers lor. It sounds wrong, but it's basic human nature I guess. While I know I'm not exactly a on-the-ball-on-fire type of Christian, I do still know that despite my shortcomings and inadequacies, God still watches out for me. I mean, what if I really were to die? Sometimes I think about that, but then I start thinking about how I may be a little too tied to enjoying life. It's just one of those tough questions. Actually the answer is pretty simple. I just choose not to see it.

Anyway, arrived at TTSH and reported to the Day Surgery ward. I must say that all the nurses are very nice. It's nice to go into the pre-op room and not feel pissed with the staff. There were plenty of good mornings... smiles... 'how are you's...

Well, the first thing I had to do was put on this hospital gown. I hate this part coz the gowns are always too small. Dun understand why they can't just spare a little bit more cloth and make a bigger gown for people like me. So I'm stuffed into this gown, like a bachang and it was obviously way too short. Had to use a blanket to cover my bottom half, otherwise, free viewing for all! So anyway, after testing my blood pressure, temperature and asking a ton of questions.. I was left to wait for the op.

They wheeled me to the prep room (the room just next to the op room) and there I waited for 20 to 30 mins. Apparently, the anaesthetist was late. sigh. Had to sit there, waiting for dunno wat.. and at the same time, trying to keep calm. Like I said, the waiting times are also the times when you tend to start thinking of all kinds of stuff.

When the anaesthetist finaly arrived, things moved pretty quickly. They wheeled me into the room, transferred me to the op bed, and stuck a needle in back of my hand (I beleive they call it a life-line). The anaesthetist simply said 'first we'll inject some medicine to prevent vomitting'.. then 'now take deep breaths' as the nurse put the oxygen mask over my nose and mouth. Then, he basically said, 'Now, you'll be going to sleep.' I dunno, I dun think I even heard the end of that sentence. I was out.

The next thing I knew, I was in the recovery room, after about an hour or so in the op room. As usual, my throat hurt. As far as I know, after I go to sleep, they put a tube down your throat to help you breathe (eewww!). Of course, more so than my throat, the next thing that kinda scared me was that I would have to start passing out the stone fragments which they had crushed. Apparently, there was a uric stone blocking my kidney flow. Hence, they had used a laser to break it andnow, I simply have to drink plenty of water and pass it all out. Yes. It is quite painful. I shall not elaborate just how painful it is. Take my word for it.

Well, after resting for another 2 hrs or so, I went home with my sis. The one thing I can feel immediately is that my back no longer hurts when I stand. When the kidney was blocked, it was swollen so I really couldn't walk standing straight without experencing pain. Now the pain is dramatically reduced. Great! I've now got to simply rest, and drink plenty of water to flush out my system. Running a low-grade fever now, it's kinda expected coz the body had just undergone some trauma. Looks like much resting and sleeping over the next couple of days...

Thorn in the flesh...

Gonna go for another day surgery tomorrow. Two Fridays ago, I felt that something wasn't very right with my right side. There was a dull pain which was kinda like the one I had a year ago on my left side when my left kidney got blocked. I was also running a fever which went up and down between 38 and 39.7 degrees. So, I spent the following Sunday and Monday undergoing various x-rays and tests and the verdict? There was some blockage in my right kidney, and it was a swollen. So, I managed to get an appointment with Tan Tock Seng to see a specialist for last Friday. The specialist was new to me coz my old one had left to go into private practice. Anyway, he decided that it would be best for me to undergo a day surgery to remove the stone. I'm not gonna go into details coz I think it's too much of a reality-tv for posting. Well, simply put, I'm gonna be put under GA (general anaesthetic) where I basically go to sleep while they do whatever it is they're gonna do.

So, it's a week's mc for me as I recover from the op. Sorry to my three Sec 2 classes. Have to leave you guys at the last week of the module. I'm sure you'll have fun with the relief (as I know most classes always enjoy having a relief)...

Check back if you want to find out more after my op tomorrow... that is unless I'm too zonked out to post.

Parady of National Day Song

Heh.. Singaporeans also very free. Here's some guy who took the effort to do a different music video to the new National Day song. Frankly , I find Taufik a little irritating to look at in the video. Rui-en.. ok lar, but she't not really a big star yet, so I'm kinda surprised she got such an honour to record a national day song. Well, download this file, it's quite funny. The author used scenes from some chinese movies as a background.

Click here to get the file.
(I'm trying out this online hosting place.. sorry, no other place for me to host the files.)

Of marathons and other stuff

This is gonna be a busy weekend with the marathon thing held over Saturday and Sunday. I think it should be pretty exciting and festive. Let's see how things go. Maybe I'll take some pics.

Tonight was drama feste. Bayley, Buckley and Hullett put up their plays. Nah, I'm not gonna post my comments on the plays here. It won't be nice to any of the houses. I think on the whole I did enjoy myself thought the two emcees did take a swipe at me, using me as the object of their jokes. Ok lar, since they really didn't do anything real, I guess it's not worth taking any offence. Personally though, I thought it would have been nicer to have the emcees to be from RI rather than for them to be old boys from RJC. Don;t get me wrong, I have nothing against the old boys. I just thought that the emcee thing was always a great opportunity for the RI boys to have some fun and do some improv. Kind of a waste to see this opportunity being taken away and given to the JC boys.

Went for dinner after that at the Kopitiam near Catholic High at St 22. The dessert stall there is really good. Give it a try if you haven't tried it. They use super-fine shaven ice so it's really shiok to eat the ice. The ice kachang is really good! Also had the hokkien prawn mee. Not bad lar. Was quite hungry so I guess everything would taste better than they actually are. heh heh.

Can you tell which is the chimp?

Here's a pretty challenging task. Please take your time to make the decision. I trust it may be a hard one for many of you.

Can you tell me which is the chimp in this pic??

(Answer: It's the one in the book! Did you get it right?)

The more you spend, the more you save!

This has got to be the highlight of my week!

One evening, I decided to go to Ang Mo Kio central to have some Century Egg Porridge at the S11 there. I've not been feeling well and my appetite's been a little off, so I've kinda been surviving on good century egg porridge. Anywaez, after the porridge (which was really good!) I decided to go to Laser Flair for a look. It's kinda like my usual 'walk-a-bout-circuit' everytime I go to Ang Mo Kio central. And that was where I had the find of the week! Laser Flair had brought in a few box sets of some anime! I was quite excited... it's rare to see so many Anime box sets at one shop. The next thing I noticed was one of the sets of 6 DVDs (Infinite Ryvius) was only going for about $71!! Without hesitation, I purchased it. The other two box sets were going at about $150 each so I thought I'd go home and check out the prices on Amazon first.

When I got home, I found that Infinite Ryvius was literally a STEAL at $71. On Amazon, Volume 1 was already going for S$75!!! And each DVD after that was going for about S$45!! Which basically means, if I'd ordered the same set from Amazon, it would have cost me $300!! And Laser Flair was selling it at $71! OMG. I had literally saved S$230!

I then checked the prices of Witch Hunter Robin and Argentosoma, the other two boxed sets. According to Amazon, the Witch Hunter Robin set would cost S$214 and Argentosoma would cost more than S$270. As Laser Flair was only selling them at $150, I would be saving PLENTY! I immediately asked my friend to help me purchase the two box sets.

So now, I am the proud owner of three new Anime series! And altogether, I'd saved over $400!! I think that's something to be really pleased about. Here's my proud new DVDs!

My brother introduced me to the infamous Crazy Frog video. Apparently, it's the first ringtone to become No.1 in the UK charts. Usually, No.1 songs are converted into ringtones, but in this case, the opposite happened! It's incredible how something so silly can be actually bring in millions of pounds to its designer! If you want to download/view the video, you can click here and see if the video is still available. I suggest you right-click and save the link rather than click it to wait for it load.

It's Friday again. This week really zipped by. I think it was becoz I was busy reading Harry Potter until Tuesday nite. Wednesday, I went to watch The Island with my brother. Thursday I had two meetings in school followed by a dinner appointment. Friday, I had another meeting until like 6pm. So here I am, after a week of reading, meetings, movie-viewing, eating and of course... working lar!

I'm quite keen to restart reading Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix, or OOTP as I think it's lovingly called. I really don't have many recollections of that book. But must admit, I'm a little scared. Kena hooked then sure die. Again no time to do other stuff.

The Island was ok lar. But a few parts were a little slow. Ewan McGregor was ok. But I don't understand why Scarlett Johansson was chosen as the lead? OK, I know I'm not the right person to say this, but I think she looked kinda pudgy in the movie! Her face was roundish and I really don't think she was very appealing lar. The story is ok, though the ending was kinda predictable. Michael Bay is the director. He did stuff like Armageddon & Pearl Harbour, so you have a pretty good idea how we filmed this movie. It had a few 'Armageddon' moments. Quite amusing to see those.

The meetings on Thursday and Friday were quite killer. Actually Thursday was not too bad, two not-too long meetings. But Friday.. phew! It was a 4 hour meeting. Really long. Sigh, dunno lar, I know long meetings are generally not effective. But I am guilty of holding long meetings sometimes too. Maybe they are a necessary evil?

Today was also Dialogue Session. I think it was not bad, but it's a real pity that we only have about 25mins for the whole thing. But what to do? Can't seem to find other suitable slots. I mean, some questions were really good, and I know many of the students were dying to ask more questions about blogs. But there was just insufficient time. See lor, must continue to look for a better time to hold it. I think a slot of 1 to 1.5 hours would be just nice.

Well, the weekend is here at last. Shiok. Maybe I do live for weekends! :-) Last weekend kena burned coz of Open House. Next week is seriously going to kena burn coz of the marathon thing. (It's meaningful lar, but still.. sigh...).

Oh yah, I finished reading the first three books of Dragon Quest: Warriors of Eden. Not bad. Like reading an RPG game! die lar.. kena hook on chinese comics again. I had stopped reading chinese comics for many years. Used to collect stuff like the whole Dragon Ball series! Now start again.. sigh. Sure spend money and pile up books all over my room.

OK, the weekend has started for 1h 15mins liaoz! Yay!

Mission Accomplished!

All 607 pages. Finished. Quite an accomplishment for me. Yes, I know some of you finished it on Saturday afternoon, but for me, doing 607 pages in 3 days is quite impressive already. So of course, one can't help but discuss the book. So, for the benefit of those who have not read the book, I will use a lighter font (can't find the exact colour to match the background!) to type my thoughts so that those who are really interested can read them. Oh yah, if you are gonna use my tag board to say something related to the plot, please start with *spoiler* as a courtesy to those who have not read the book and who don't want to know the story. So here goes:

**** SPOILERS ****
Severus Snape
I guess I half expected Snape to be the bad guy. That was obviously why JK Rowling had that discussion in the beginning between Snape and the two women; to cast doubt as to whether Snape was really serving Voldemort or serving Dumbledore. Of course, I was kinda irritated when someone posted on my Tag that Snape was the obvious bad guy before I even finished half the book....

Dumbledore Dead?
Hmm, if you ask me, I don't think so. The ending with the phoenix, the white tomb, etc, kinda hints that he'll be back. So, my bet is he's gonna resurrect some how.

Teenage Angst
I think JK Rowling tried too hard to make Harry and his school mates more grown-up. While i have nothing against it, I found it out-of-place that suddenly there are all these 'rude hand gestures' begin shown here and there. I felt it didn't seem to flow well with how they had been portrayed in previous books.

BGR
haha.. I guess JK Rowling had to show that Harry, Ron and Hermoine are all full-blooded teenagers. All the kissing and hugging and longing... haha.. a little overboard lar.

Half-blood Prince
Haha.. I guess when it was revealed that Snape was the half-blood prince, the title of the book made plenty of sense. I'll admit that I didn't guess that Snape was the prince. So I thought that was a neat little revelation.

Better than Book 5?
Kinda hard to decide. To be frank, compared to the first 4 books, I have very little impression of the Order of the Phoenix. I think I'm gonna re-read that soon. Perhaps then Book 6 will make more sense. Comparatively, I think books 1 to 4 are better than 5 and 6. If I really had to choose, I'm inclined to think that book 6 is a little more interesting than 5. But then again, after I re-read it, I might change my ming.

Movie
I think this is gonna be a really difficult book to make into a movie. There are so many flashbacks so the movie would be one long history lesson. But I guess the ending, starting from when Dumbledore and Harry enter the Cave to his death would make for pretty heart-pumping action. I can picture a pretty exciting fight between the teachers/students and the Death Eaters. But Daniel Radcliffe & company will probably be too old to play Harry Potter by then. Wonder who they'll get to replace them. It's gonna be hard to find good replacements. After all, all the actors have already left strong impressions of how each character should look. Can you imagine anyone but Daniel Radcliffe acting as Harry? Kinda difficult.

Potty over Potter II

Up to page 380...out of 607 pages.. not bad, only 227 more to go! haha, with luck (& lots of commitment) I might just finish the book tomorrow!

Potty over Potter

Yep, I've finally started on the Harry Potter book. It's quite a sinful pleasure actually. There are other stuff to do, but I'm committed to try and finish the book in the next few days. heh. If only I had that much commitment to the other stuff I do.. (uh.. not that I'm not committed to other stuff... I am... it's just that compared to my commitment to finish reading the book, my commitment to other stuff might seem to pale.. gotit?) So anyway, I spent a good part of this afternoon reading it, and managed to complete 130 out of 607 pages. Woo hoo!

Rant

Ok. I usually don't rant. But just have to get something off my chest.

I cannot understand why sometimes, people can't just make their unhappiness about something known. I cannot understand why they prefer to keep it quiet, thinking that through some miraculous form of telepathy, I am expected to understand and know what is bugging them.

Instead, they prefer to let the things seethe and eat away at them, then over a seemingly meaningless and small thing, they just blow up and make a huge mountain out of the proverbial mole hill. Then I'm left wondering why on earth did that blow up occur when the thing was so insignificant anyway?

So, I'm to blame? I refuse to accept that.

No way. There's no way I am going to accept blame for something which I am unaware of. At the very minimum, I could have been told of the situation and the need for me to make some adjustments. It's not as if I'm not doing what I'm supposed to do. I think I've done what I've needed to do and done it to a reasonable extent. So on top of all this, I am expected to fit into YOUR schedule as well and I am supposed to telepathically know your schedule.

I think that's crap. Pure crap.

So now, I'm to be the 'bigger man' and forgive the other person? I don't think so. I believe the bare minimum would be an apology and then we can discuss how we can proceed.

(OK, let me make this clear. This rant has got nothing to do with any student. It's just me letting off some steam.)

It's Open House tomorrow so there was plenty of activity going on this evening in school. I was helping to pack the packages in the meeting room. I must admit there was something strangely therapeutic about repetitive actions. It was basically take paper-take paper- take paper-take booklet- take brochure-file, then repeat and repeat and repeat. Quite mindless but uncannily enjoyable. I think the closest occupation I can think of that does this would be working in a photocopy shop! Sometimes, I do wonder how long I would last in a so-called mundane job like working in a photocopy shop. I know I often crave challenges, but maybe, just maybe, it would be fun to work in a less-exciting job. heh.

My grandfather (who has long passed on), used to own a coffee shop in the Yio Chu Kang area, near Upper Serangoon Shopping Centre. When I was a kid, I remember helping out in the coffee shop, taking orders, serving drinks, preparing chee-cheong-fun and selling paus. At that age, it was really quite fun. It was family-run, so we did everything from clearing the cups, serving the drinks, washing the cups and dishes and scrubbing the floor at 1am in the morning. I managed to 'help out' sometimes during the holidays. Maybe that's why I often have this urge to work in a Starbucks or Coffee Bean! Might be fun to bark out orders: "Grande Cafe Latte!" (with a fake american accent!).

Who knows, I might still be able to make my wish come true!

Here's the Raffles contingent at the Swim Finals. We had RGS girls in the front, RI boys in the middle and RJ students at the back. They were flanked by the prefects in their bright orange T. I think combined, we were easily the largest contingent there! Congrats to the Swim Team for the great results and a WELL DONE to the students who really cheered their hearts out!

Report on Parallel Imports of DVDs and CDs

Channelnewsasia had a report on how cinemas and distributors in Singapore want to stop parallel imports of DVDs and CDs. In a simple word, I think it's pretty c**p. Their reason for banning parallel imports? So that they can earn more revenue at the cinemas! Please lar, if you want to fight parallel imports of DVDs, etc, SHOW THE MOVIES EARLIER LAH! For example, the 'latest' Sin City which is still not released in Singapore was shown in US in early April. We are getting it in the cinemas only now! It's already scheduled to be released in DVD on August 16 in the US.

In this day and age of globalization and internet access, it's quite ridiculous to try and stop things like parallel import. People will just turn to Amazon and other online sites. Ultimately, everyone (including retailers) suffers. You want to keep people in the cinemas... just bring in the shows earlier! It's as simple as that.

Click here for the report.

(For those who don't know, parallel imports are good which are purchased from other countries. For example, a VCD movie meant for Singapore sale (like Spiderman) can cost $12. Some shops buy the VCDs from Indonesia or Bangkok which might cost only $8. The VCDs from other countries are called parallel imports.)

Here's a close-up for you to take a BETTER look. He's obviously lookingmore 'fantastic' than Mr Fantastic, eh?

I saw the whole series of Fantastic Four toys at Takashimaya today. Take a look at the pic, dun you think they are one of the ugliest toys around!?? I have no idea why they would design such horrible looking things. Just look at Mr Fantastic. Who on earth would buy that! Invisible Girl doesn't look any better this way (compared to my earlier pic), The Thing looks kinda gay in this pose and Human Torch is just plain stupid! And you know what's worse? Take a close look at the Human Torch's groin, isn't that just being TOO anatomically correct? PUKE!

Caught Sin City today. I've not read the comic so I didn't have much expectations. Imagine my surprise when the violence started! Then I realised it was a R21 movie! lolz.. I bought a ticket without checking the ratings. Anywaez, the movie was really violet. Although there were some... nude scenes... I am pretty sure it was the violence which gave it the R21 rating. There were slashings.. stabs.. cuts.. slices.. TEARING... phew. Thankfully, they kinda replaced all the red blood with white colour or something liddat, so it was slightly less gory. But it was still very violent. But then again, I think it was a pretty good comic-book movie. I think it was much better than Batman Begins. Well, I'm guessing most of you who read this blog aren't supposed to see the movie, so there won't be much agreement/disagreement from you on this...

This is one scary toy! I saw the new Fantastic 4 toys at Carrefour and I was horrified at this Invisible Girl toy. I mean, I have to admit that Jessica Alba was really HOT in the movie, but this figure is just plain wrong! Everything is proportionately wrong and the pose is just weird (I didn't pose it liddat.. most of the boxes came in this pose!). This is one toy which really should have been invisible...

Saw this at Suntec the other time. Quite exciting to see that Singapore has started on this 'capsule' thing like Japan! There were plenty of machines and some were actually cheaper than those in Japan. I managed to get an Incredibles keychain for only $1.

Walked past the new National Library building tonight. OK, I'll admit from this angle and lighting, it doesn't look too bad. Actually, I'm more impressed with my HP for being able to take such a nice night pic!

Dreamz

Last night, I had one of those weird dreams. I dreamt that I was with some friends (can't remember exactly who now) but basically the dream was based in Tokyo and Osaka. My friends and I had done something (also cannot remember!) which woke Godzilla! For the rest of the dream, it was basically running, running and more running away from Godzilla. I had to pull my friends and run deep into the malls in Tokyo to try to avoid Godzilla. Godzilla would be hurling boulders and shooting fire as he searched for us. Then, whenever there was eye contact with us, he would go wild and start thrashing towards us! To escape him, we took a bus to Osaka where I hid in a friend's house. When it appeared that all was quiet, I went out early in the morning to explore the terrified city. It was quiet, and Godzilla was nowhere in sight. And I thought of watching a movie. Dunno why also... But anyway, somehow, Godzilla caught up with us and we continued running. Funnily, I remember stopping at a shop in a mall while running, cause they had this cute dog/cat-like toy which you could stroke its back and it would respond in a realistic way and I just had to spend time stroking its back (maybe I should get a pet?).

After more running, I kinda managed to escape Godzilla as he came to rest in the sea just off Osaka. Then it appears that Godzilla has been communicating with the Japanese leaders (dunno how also). His terms were simple, turn me over and he will leave. But the Japanese Leaders were reluctant and they would not sacrifice even one person. Then... I woke up.

Any dream interpreters out there?

Young Leaders Day

Went for the Young Leaders Day at the Singapore Expo. It was quite well attended. I'm not too good at estimating, but I'm guessing there were close to 2000 students there. From what I gather, the YLD is supposed to be organised to inspire the Young Leaders as they take on leadership roles. Hence, they scheduled 6 consecutive talks for the whole day. Upside? Speeches were generally short & snappy. Downside? At time, speeches were just hot air.. not much substance.

I learnt quite a bit from this YLD. From an organizational standpoint, it was very interesting to see a conference organised for the youth. It was quite refreshing. From the hip dances to the video clips to the snappy pace, they were all quite indicative of how teenagers today generally behave, in this so-called MTV generation. From a personal standpoint, it was heartening to be reminded about simple things like WHY we lead and the passions which drive us.

Dr William Tan's sharing wasn't very deep. But I enjoyed it because it came from his heart. He spoke from personal experience and conviction and this made all the difference. Dr Andrew Goh helped me to see that Singaporeans can also be excellent motivational speakers. We often think that the westerners are the best at that. But Dr Goh was really very engaging. Again, he had simple points, but he managed to capture our attention with his very humourous stories.

The next 3 were unfortunately quite ho-hum. Tanya Chua & company was a waste of time, IMHO. Their segment seemed better suited in a Music Career Talk. H.E. Ong Keng Yong was also not very interesting. I think he had two things working against him. Firstly, it was the post-lunch-sleepiest-time-of-the-day session and secondly, I think he didn't have enough time to really say anything worth listening to. Claire Chiang & Ho Kwon Ping were quite interesting. But I felt their sharing was quite fluffy and at times, not very relevant.

Finally, we had Michael Lee from US. It was a good way to end YLD. After the 3 ho-hum segments, Michael brought focus back to the day. His simple sharing of NED was excellent and again, he did it with such simplicity and conviction. I liked his message. He said "the greatest thing we can do with our talents and abilities is to share them". I think that's really true. If only more people could have such a mindset.

All in all, while not a perfect conference, the YLD was quite good. If nothing else, it reminded me of the things I am doing and why I do them. A very useful reminder!

Warning... Scary Pics

OK, before you judge me, I would like to make it clear that I am not a pervert.

These pics were uploaded on the request of Mr. LZY.

Warning... the images are quite disturbing. Do not view unless you are mentally strong enough.

If you are really ready... click here.

Comics Day

Today was Comics Day. Not bad actually. I thot it was reasonably festive. We had comic book slaes by Chuang Yi and Comics Mart, a Comic Character Drawing Competition and even our very own comic book launch! haha.. It's a shadow of a real convention, but I think having a shadow is better than not having anything at all.

I remember when I visited my first convention in the US. I've been dying to visit one after reading about them in magazines and over the internet. Quite a few years back, I planned a trip to the US where I would be able to visit a few conventions. If memory serves me right, I ended up visiting two Star Trek conventions and a comic book convention during that trip. Conventions are really quite exciting. Hundreds of tables selling stuff..from books to toys to whateva you can think of. Then on stage, there would be performances. At the Star Trek convention, they had people dressed up as Klingons performing Klingon fighting scenes! Then there are the special guests who talked about their experiences performing in Star Trek. It was quite exciting queuing up to get my purchases signed by the actors. There were also screening rooms where various videos were being screened, like fan-made videos of Star Trek episodes, etc.

Well, like I said, our little Comics Day is a good start. Maybe we could have a Sci-fi convention next! heh.. .I can almost feel the prefects shivering at that thot!

Oh yah, if you are interested, I've posted some pics of Comics Day at my album. Click on the link on the right to take a look.

Went to Funan today. Kinda had to go coz I know I won't be free tomorrow. As I was approaching Funan, I decided to play with the settings on on my phone. So, I set the effects to Sepia and ended up taking the two pics below. I know it's not as arty as what some of you can do, but I thought the yellowish effect is quite nice.

Fantastic Movie

I managed to make some time to catch the Fantastic Four movie today. I think that it is not too bad. The effects were kinda fun, though I really can't believe/get used to Ben Grimm's orange exterior. It just looks unreal. The invisible girl's effects were ok. Human Torch was obviously CGI. It wasn't really convincing. But the flame effects were also nice. Mr Fantastic's stretching ability was quite cheesy. It's like something we have watched in movies 10 years ago. Didn't really look state-of-the-art.

Story-wise, no big deal. Quite straight forward and not very exciting. Having Dr Doom as the villain was not very exciting. Dr Doom was quite blah.

But Human Torch's smart mouth remarks are quite funny. And on the whole, the movie is quite a fun ride. Watch it for some fun. But don't expect too much.

IOC thoughts

Today, the most important thing happening in our little red dot called Singapore is of course the IOC thing. So, I would of course like to contribute my opinions which I guess isn't that relevant to anyone cause I doubt anyone in the IOC organising committee will read it. But oh well, that's the joy of blogging rite?

So, I thought having the IOC in Singapore is quite exciting. I wished I could have camped out at Raffles City so that I could catch a glimpse of the VIPs and stars. But I still have a job to do, so no chance of doing that.

I was a kinda disappointed with the Opening Ceremony. Firstly, I think the emcees (esp the female one) were really bad. They had no chemistry and the female emcee was obviously overwhelmed by the VVIP audience. Quite a sad display of our emcee-ing skills. The next shocker was the National Anthem. Personally, I respect Jacintha as a singer. But I think asking her to do the National Anthem in a jazzy-laid back style was plain WRONG. It sounded terrible! I wonder what the audience thought as they heard the weird version of our anthem. I think a full choir singing it in full force would have been wonderful and grand. Instead, what we did was a night-club/lounge version of our anthem. Really embarassing. Finally, I was also kinda disappointed that they didn't even show the whole opening ceremony (with performances) over Channelnewsasia. I was hoping to watch more than just the speeches. Quite a let down when the performances began and the telecast stopped. 'BOO' to CNA for not doing a full telecast.

This morning, I only managed to catch 5 mins of Paris' presentation. I would have loved to watch every single presentation. It's not every day/month/year that we get to view such excellent presentations by the various countries. I think there was much we could have learnt. I think it would have been wonderful if students were allowed to watch and maybe discuss/evaluate the presentations. This would be a real-world lesson for all. Maybe (though I think highly unlikely) CNA will show all the presentations again some time.

London winning? Aiya, I guess I don't really have any strong feelings for or against them. Just kinda sad to hear that Paris had tried and failed three times to host the games! Quite poor thing. It would also have been interesting if Moscow won. Their idea of a river transportation system was quite innovative & unique.

Well, the decision's made and Singapore's 5 mins of fame (ok lar.. closer to 24 hours) is over. Back to reality.

Changed Photo Album

Decided to use flickr.com instead of photobucket. I find the animations and slideshows, etc, more interesting than photobucket. Take a look by clicking on the link on the right!

Youth Day

Today is Youth Day. The real one lar.. not the whole week thing we were doing last week. I must admit, holidaez are one of the big PLUSes of being a teacher. But then again, you dun get flexi holidaez like in the private sector where you can apply leave. You can only go on holiday during the holidaez and no other time. Can be quite sianz.

Anywaez, today wasn't really a holiday coz had to go back school for an exchange programme. I'm not gonna bore everyone with the details. Basically thot it went quite well.

The one thing which I thot was interesting was the way everyone just became totally energized when it came to the floorball and captain's ball time. Regardless of country, language, gender... a ball can just energize and unite youths in a split second! Quite interesting as I stood there observing everyone. I was told one of the gals had hurt her both her feet before the trip (saw the plasters/bandages) but she was excitedly joining in all the games as well!

Oh well, guess i have to accept that 'youth' has long passed by me. Really loved those times in Secondary School and JC. Hope you guys enjoy your youths while you can!

PSP Update

It's been 7 months since I bought my PSP from Osaka. I have to say that while I do love my PSP and think it's a totally cool piece of hardware, I have not been as excited with the software for the PSP. Sure, there are some nice games, like Ridge Racer, Wipeout Pure and Lumines, but on the whole, the games are lagging behind those available for the Nintendo Gameboy and Nintendo DS. I think the Nintendo DS is an ugly piece of hardware. But so far, some pretty fun games have been released, like Polarium and Kirby Canvas Curse. Sony, WHERE ARE THE GAMES? I'm waiting eagerly for the first real platformer to come out, Death Jr. It's supposed to be out later this month. The other platformer I'm looking forward to is Midieval. It seems that in Japan, PSP is losing out to the DS and PS2. Of course lar! There aren't any must-buy games! Sigh.

One good thing though, is that many people are now formatting magazines for viewing on the PSP. That's quite cool. Just need to spend a couple of minutes downloading the magazine then can read it on the taxi/bus/train. The magazines are quite good too. Not some hastily-put-together crap. The other cool thing are Movie Trailers that are specially formatted for the PSP. I've downloaded trailers for the new Harry Potter movie, Bewitched and many others. So on a positive note, the PSP is really becoming more of a multimedia machine, something which I think Sony did hope for it to become. Well, hope the good games will start rolling out soon!


Here are two PSP mags I downloaded. The first one features reviews on UMD movies. The second one is a innovative magazine on the PSP which is viewed vertically!

Today was a busy busy day. Nah, it wasn't busy coz of work. For some reason, I just decided to go different places today. It started off with lunch at Adam Road market coz a colleague who was driving was going that direction. Had a yummy plate of rojak and a semi-decent plate of nasi-lemak. After that, continued on to Holland Village coz my colleague (the same one who was driving) was going that direction. It's been a while since I went to Holland and I thot I'd drop by to take a look. The place is a mess with all the construction for the circle line. It used to be such a quaint and cosy place. Guess it won't be for another couple of years until the construction is complete.

After walking around Hollang V and visiting the landmark Holland V shopping centre (nice to walk, but nothing to buy), I made my way to Funan Centre coz I wanted to see if there were any new second hand games at the game shops there. Took a taxi (which cost me almost $10!!!) there and spent some time browsing. But unfortunately, there wasn't anything there.. only managed to buy Spanglish DVD, a movie starring Adam Sandler. Hmm.. after Funan, walked over to Gramaphone at Capitol for a look before doubling back to Funan to take a bus to Pearl Centre in Chinatown.

After looking at the DVD shops and handphone shops, I went to the NE MRT, thinking I would make my way home. But then I decided to drop by Harbour Front coz I wanted to see the new BiG store by Safe Superstore. I remembered they had a DVD recorder going for $269. So, I took the MRT in the opposite direction and spent some time at the Harbour Front. The BiG store is quite big... heh... but not really fantastic lar. The DVD recorder was the 'terapin' brand. Didn't look really good. So, I looked around a little more then decided to go home. Took the NEL, and then decided it had been a while since I went to Heartland Mall at Kovan. Sooooo... why not? It's on the NE Line anyway. So, took the NEL all the way to Kovan and looked around Heartland mall. By then, it was already 7pm so I thought I might as well have some dinner there. But couldn't find anything I wanted to eat. For some reason, I was thinking of Katong Laksa... So.. took a taxi back to Bishan. Of course, there wasn;t any Katong Lakso there, so ta-pao some dinner and went home.

Hence ended my day of mall-hopping.

Sounds fruitful and fun eh?

Oh yah, at Junction 8, I suddenly decided to buy some preserved fruits. Dunno why. No, I am not pregnant. Just happened to have the craving. So, I bought a whole pack of the preserved fruit (SUPERIOR sweet plums) and ended up cutting them up coz they were too big (Here's a pic!).

So, I guess in the end, you could say it was a fruitful day!

And since I'm on the topic of comparisons.. thought I'd post another picture comparing some images. Notice how they look quite similar? Tell you what, try to match the following to the correct pics: kiwi fruit, a certain student, esplanade... which is which?!

We had MUFTI day on Friday. It's always nice to see how different people dress up to reflect their personality. Below is how one student chose to express himself. I think he looks like a famous singapore comedienne... no?

War of the Worlds

Finally, mid-week. The first week of the new term is always a horrible one. It's like a massive hangover which lasts for the whole week. After a month of holidaez, of sleeping late and waking late, of doing fun stuff... coming back to school is like a massive jolt back to reality. Like it or not, it's part of school life. So, guess there's not much point in complaining.

Other than the horrible feeling of tiredness and the unrelenting wave of things/activities, I guess the term has not been too bad so far. Teaching wise, the 3 classes I'm taking is a nice return to familiarity since I'd taught them before last year. Teaching Physics is certainly more fun than having to cover Chemistry as well. Youth Week has also been quite ok so far. Despite initial concerns, I must say things appear to be going reasonably well.

Today, I decided to make time and go watch War of the Worlds. Actually, the main reason why I had to go was coz I had a movie voucher which expires on 30 Jun. So if I didn't go, I would be wasting a free ticket! WotW was pretty good. The special effects were quite breath-taking. But the one thing which really stole the show was Dakota Fanning. She's the little girl. I mean, she can really freak out! Throughout the show, she pretty much convinces you how scared she is and her screams and sobs are really wrenching. The one small let-down is the ending coz it ends quite abruptly. I think Spielberg did it intentionally coz he wasn't really focussed on how to fight the aliens but how the 'everyday people' faced the invasion. I'm sure many people in the cinema were like 'HUH?!' when the movie ended. haha. Good show. Go watch.

OK, two more days to go. Then it's weekend. Phew!

First day blues.....

I am sooooooooooooooo tired... YAWNZ......

The first day has been pretty ok, but it's been such a looooooooooong day.

YAWNZ.....

Went to Funan today. Kind of like my way of spending all possible free time doing stuff I want before the term starts. Bought a few new games coz a few of the game shops were having sales (as part of the Great Singapore Sale). I have no idea when I'm gonna play the games, but I guess it's ok to get them when they are on sale so that I can play them later. Bought Ratchet & Clank 3, supposedly an excellent platformer. I've enjoyed R&C 1 and 2 so I think 3 should be pretty good too. Also bought Kirby Canvas Curse, a DS game. Anyway, noticed the nearly completed Court House so I took a pic. Just doesn't look very court-ish to me. More like a restaurant cum shopping complex! Personally, I find the walls weird. They have this slices of marble 'pasted' onto a frame like design. (I think you should be able to see it if you click on the pic and see the larger version). A classy building? Don;t think so. I think it belongs as one of Singapore's ugliest wonders. (Right next to our horrigible new National Library building).

Oh yah, I went to The Marketplace supermarket at Paragon on Wednesday evening and found the yummy Calpis water there! And compared to japan, it was pretty cheap! For you expo-ers, you would remember that a can of calpis would probably cost about 120 yen which works out to about S$1.80. At the supermart, it was only going for $1.55. Like I said, it's of course, costlier than other normal soft drinks, but it's cheaper than Japan! And a 1.5 litre bottle was goign for S$5.60. That's comparatively reasonable too.

Initial D

Somehow, today started off really badly. Just one of those days when the world just doesn't seem right. Maybe it's the thot that the holidaez are ending. Or maybe it's just the proverbial 'getting out on the wrong side of the bed'. My apologies to those I'd snapped at todae.

Anywaez, despite the not too good start, the day got a little better in the late afternoon. I decided to catch Initial D. Now, I'm not exactly a racing car fan so I would probably not be the first in line to catch a racing movie. But I guess, the fact that it's based on a manga, made it quite alluring. So with very little expectations in mind, I went over to Great World to catch the movie. Initial D is a very strange movie. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed myself. I think I found it strange becoz the weird way they did this movie. Watching this movie is really like reading a japanese comic. Some of the humour would feel totally weird in a regular movie. But if you think of reading a manga, where dirty old men like to stare up little school girls' skirts, then it all kinda makes sense. No, it's not a porno movie. There's nothing to see. But occasionally, such actions will suddenly take place. The other weird thing is the way the movie is done. The directors have tried to follow the manga closely by basing the movie in Japan. But all the actors are Chinese?! And they try to get these chinese actors to act in a japanese way! Like the bowing, the overly courteous actions, you get wat I mean? And very often, it just seemed unnatural. I dunno if it might have been better to base the movie in Hong Kong or to have gotten japanese actors to act in japan instead. Anyway, despite it's weirdness, the movie is certainly pretty entertaining. Give it a shot if you are looking for some lighthearted fun.

On a related note, I watched this movie at Cinema 1 in GV Great World City. This is the cinema which was originally the Imax cinema. My frank opinion is that while the cinema screen is nice and large, the curvature of the screen and the height really makes the viewing not very enjoyable. Cinema 6 is excellent, but cinema 1 is quite a horror. If possible, do avoid cinema 1 in GV Great World.

Had a meeting this morning then I decided to go down to Orchard Rd to do some shopping. Wanted to splurge a little before the start of the new term. As I exited from The Heeren, I noticed the new design they had for the bus stop outside the mall. This has got to be one of the more interesting bus stops. I think before this, they had a very creative Madagascar decor. Well, this time, they had this Flying Saucer with a 'FOR SALE' sign. Basically saying that even the aliens are flying Valuair. Thought it was really creative!



When I turned right to go towards Taka, I noticed another excellent promo for War of the Worlds!



After getting plenty of books and magazines from Kino in Taka, I went towards cineleisure and noticed the four Fantastic Four statues! I've read about it in the papers, but had forgotten about it. It was really quite thrilling to see the four statues which were pretty well done. They were placed at the four corners of the junction. Apparently, they had originally wanted the statues to be able to shoot stuff like lasers, but our ever vigilant traffic police said it would be too distracting to drivers... sigh.



It's really very refreshing to see such promotional activities going around Singapore. I think it adds to the excitement of the place and makes it very vibrant. Hope to see much more of such promos!

The Challenge

The last two days have been pretty challenging. It's the first time I'm facilitating the Leadership Challenge for students in its entirety. For those who have been following my blog, you'd know that barely three months ago, I had to conduct an Introduction workshop for the teachers on the Leadership Challenge. That was pretty nerve-wrecking. But that was only a 10am to 3pm kinda thing and I needn't do the whole workshop, just an intro.

This time round, I was conducting the complete TLC workshop for the students, spread across 2 days, from 8.30am to 3.30pm. I was kinda nervous at the start cause I wasn't really sure if I was all ready to conduct it. I had most of the things in order... reports, powerpoints, logistics... but it was just this fear that the whole workshop would end up being a big bore and waste of time.

At the end of these two days, my first response is to breathe a huge sigh of relief. I'm glad my 'virgin' workshop is over. It certainly wasn't perfect and there are areas I really need to work on and improve, but I think on the whole, it was ok. There were times when it got a little demoralizing when I noticed students nodding off or spacing out. Then of course, there were pupils who weren't really interested to take part in the activities. Regardless of all that, I am optimistic that most of the participants were able to take something useful away from the two days spent together.

Well, once again, the holidays are coming to an end. There's a prefects' meeting tomorrow, then I have two days to get stuff ready for the new term. I am so very tempted to go away for those two days.. take a short trip to Hong Kong or something. But I noe the reality is that there is plenty to do before the term starts, especially with Youth Week kicking off the term. Well, all good things must come to an end I suppose.

Let the games begin!

Spent last night and this morning putting together this 950 piece Jigsaw. I bought it last year when I was in Japan. Jigsaws are generally cheaper there. This is my first panaroma-type jigsaw. I always use the long holidays to do jigsaws if I find one that I like. My largest one is a 2000 piece one I think. Those who've been to my place have seen it. That took me a pretty long time. A few days.

Saw this chair/shopping trolley at NTUC yesterday. How I wish I had this at the World Expo! It would have made the queuing up so very much more bearable!